KOU CHOU CHING

Having taken their name from a Taiwanese phrase dealing with the hard labor of the harvest season, this group directly shows off its dedication to Taiwan roots music. fishLIN and Fan Chiang who met while competing at street festivals make up the core of the crew. These two rappers became fast friends and joined forces over their love for Taiwan. With the help of DJ j. little who scratches over their Chinese, Taiwanese, Hakka and Hoklo lyrics and suona players Achino and Yobo who add an acoustic folk dimension to the sound, KOU CHOU CHING become complete and successful in creating a distinct Taiwanese hip hop sound that pays homage to its native island of Taiwan.

PACIFICTION REVIEW:

The Taiwanese hip hop crew KOU CHOU CHING really break out on this double CD set packaged in a large 10" glossy cardboard sleeve jacket with super-sized liner notes to match. On the first disc, the group's urban roots music, steeped in local samples and instrumentation, come alive on staples like "Your Name is TAIWAN" and &Confluent People" as well as new tracks like "Black Heat" and "Graffiti From Aliens." They remain true to the local music scene with guest appearances by the professor MC JOE CHANG, CITY OF LIGHT and JASONSHU while they are also aware of Taiwan's music history as shown on "A Tribute To Labor Exchange," dedicated to the pioneering socio-political folk band. The second CD is essentially a remix album featuring numerous faces and collaborators from across Asia and elsewhere. Hong Kong's SNOBLIND, longtime guests at Taiwan's festivals, remixes "Graffiti From Aliens." Japanese artists including techno engineer BUBBLE-B and 8-bit master AONAMI also make appearances. Expat mixers like VIBA and MOSHANG make up part of the local scene alongside Taiwanese heavy hitters like DJ LIM GIONG, DJ PONT, DJ JAY SZU and even taike bad boys LTK COMMUNE! This album received a Golden Melody Award nomination sparking international praise and a subsequent trip to perform in NYC and Nashville's House of Blues!